


With Interest

by Ydnam



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-02
Updated: 2013-01-02
Packaged: 2017-11-23 10:45:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/621251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ydnam/pseuds/Ydnam
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Even landlords have to pay their tabs. Even when they don't know the tab exists.</p>
            </blockquote>





	With Interest

**Author's Note:**

> My humble contribution to the 50 First Hamburger Dates project on Tumblr. Hopefully it will amuse at least a few others.

Rumplestiltskin was trying to remain in good spirits about the hamburgers. If he didn’t know better he would say someone had cursed them and that was why the meal was forever unfinished. But he did know better. He would be aware of a curse or a hex or any magic that might have been preventing their date from going as planned. It was nothing more than an outrageous string of bad luck that interrupted them time and again. Bad luck and the unavoidable irritation of other people. It was worth it, in the end. Instead of one hamburger there had been a month of the things. This had meant a month of meals with Belle, albeit interrupted ones. Much as he hated to have his plans go awry he could hardly be truly upset that the constant interruptions meant more time spent with his Belle.

They were meeting outside the library today. This way, if the perhaps inevitable interruption came, there would have been at least a few extra moments together.

“Hey.” He always had a better greeting in his head when he met her. Every time he saw her whatever he might have said flew out of his head and he was left with the monosyllable.

“Hey,” she echoed back with a smile.

“Ready to try our lunch again?”

“I wasn’t waiting out here just to tell you to go home,” Belle pointed out. “Do expect me to say no when you ask those sorts of questions?”

“Honestly?”

She just looked at him and he knew it had been the wrong response.

“Yes, of course,” he continued. Honesty was what she always wanted. “Some days I worry you might.” She had reasons enough to spurn his company no matter what she protested. “Even though I know I should know better.”

“Yes, you should.” She shook her head with a rueful smile and held out her hand to him. “It’s cold out here. Time for lunch.” 

“That it is,” he agreed, carefully taking the offered hand. It threw off his balance, somewhat, holding on to her with one hand and the cane with the other but he’d never let on.

When they arrived at Granny’s there was a clattering in the kitchen as they settled into their booth and Ruby rushed out. “Granny’s on the warpath,” she muttered. “Watch out.”

“I heard that!”

Ruby winced. “Ready to order?”

“The usual,” Rumplestiltskin said. “With bacon this time.” 

“Surprise me,” Belle said. “I don’t think I’ve tried all of them yet, have I?”

“You haven’t.” Ruby flashed her a grin and turned back toward the kitchen. “I’ve got just the thing in mind.”

Ruby returned momentarily to set their drinks in front of them. Coffee and iced tea. She didn’t even have to ask any more. She didn’t have to ask about the food, either, but for some reason she was keeping up that pretense.

They sat in companionable silence for a few moments, sipping at their beverages and ignoring any odd looks or stares from other patrons. They’d become experts at ignoring the gazes of the other inhabitants of Storybrooke, aside from a few who still could elicit a reaction.

“You’re quiet,” he finally said.

“So are you,” she countered.

“Fair enough.” Another loud bang suddenly echoed from the kitchen. Belle jumped at the sound and he reached out and laid his hand softly on her arm. “If they’ve exploded our lunch,” he said dryly, “at least that will be a new complication.”

Ruby scurried out of the kitchen towards their table looking more like a frightened rabbit than a wolf. “I’m sor-” she managed to get out before Granny came stomping over to stand behind her.

“You haven’t paid your tab,” she snapped at Rumplestiltskin.

“I beg your pardon?”

“Your tab. You haven’t paid up. It’s a new year, I’ve been trying to sort out the books, and you’ve an outstanding tab that needs to be settled.”

“Mrs. Lucas,” his voice was soft. “I have no recollection of opening a tab in this establishment.” Tabs were hardly his style. He paid his bills, on time, and he did so in cash whenever possible.

“You didn’t.” Granny’s glare was formidable. It would seem the old wolf had teeth yet. “I had to start it for you.”

Rumplestiltskin was beginning to grow annoyed. “If you could please get to the point?”

“You owe me money.” Granny’s tone, in Rumplestiltskin’s opinion, was far more suited to addressing a deficient child than himself. 

“I always make good on my debts,” he reminded her. The Lucas woman had been fairly reasonable up until this point. He wondered what had set her off.

“So you’ll have no problem doing so now.”

“If you’ll tell me what I owe.”

Granny rattled off a number and he raised an eyebrow. “Really.”

“There’s interest,” she said with an infuriating calm. “Continously compounded interest.”

He stared at her, unsure whether to be impressed or infuriated. His reaction was falling somewhere in the middle but he was trying, oh he was trying, not to do anything he might regret. There must be a reason for this and Belle would hardly thank him for crushing the woman under his shoe.

“It hardly seems fair.” His voice, he was pleased to note, was steady still. “When I never was informed I owed in the first place.”

“You’ve been running out without paying. That’s on you to remember, not me.”

“I have?” He was genuinely surprised at first but when he thought about it there had been times he had had to leave in a terrible hurry. It was possible he hadn’t paid once or twice.

Granny fixed her glare on him again and a lesser man might have crumbled beneath its weight. But he was Rumplestiltskin and he was Mr. Gold. He was the terror of the Enchanted Forest and the bane of Storybrooke. When Granny rattled off the dates and amounts he simply nodded.

“And I’ll be wanting that in cash,” Granny said.

“I could deduct it from the rent,” Rumplestiltskin offered. It seemed a reasonable compromise to him. It would solve the problem neatly and he could eat his meal in peace.

“Cash,” Granny repeated and if anything her glare grew fiercer.

“You know I’m good for the money, dearie” he hissed. He spun gold, he owned the town, surely the woman wasn’t doubting his ability to pay. “Put it on the card. Just let me eat my meal. For once.”

“It has to be cash. Money in my hand and a burger in yours.” Granny turned on her heel and disappeared once more into the kitchen. 

Belle’s smile was sad as she looked at him. “You did tell me it was complicated.”

“I may have understated the matter. I’ll need to go to the bank,” he said regretfully. “Unforseen expenses. Will you wait?” He wouldn’t blame her for going. He wouldn’t blame her for giving up on the whole enterprise. She was better than he deserved, as always, and she simply nodded. 

“Bank’s closed for lunch.” A man’s voice came from behind him and he turned to get a better look at that booth’s occupant.

“Your plate is empty,” Rumplestiltskin said, narrowing his eyes. “Surely the lunch break is nearly over.”

“Getting dessert,” the man replied cheerfully. “And coffee. I could be here a while.”

The townspeople were conspiring against him. Granny was now perched behind the counter looking smug. The man behind him had pointedly opened a newspaper. It would seem his meal with Belle was, once more, quite doomed.

Ruby came over, clearly torn between a loyalty to the only family she had and her friend. “Sorry? You know how she gets...”

“Put today’s attempt on my tab.” He fairly spat out the last word as he got to his feet. He had other words in mind but Belle’s hand settled on his arm and he held his tongue as they exited.

“I’m sure they’ll feed you if you go back in without me,” he said. They’d stopped halfway down the block. 

“I’ll wait until tomorrow.”

He stiffened, looking down at her, stricken at the idea that she’d go hungry on his account. She swatted at his arm. “I’ll eat before tomorrow! I meant I could wait for Granny’s until then. Unless there’s somewhere else we can try?”

“I fear we’ve exhausted our options for burgers, love. We’ll go back tomorrow, money in hand, and see if the old bat hasn’t changed her mind.”

He left her outside the library where they’d met a short time earlier and began the lonely walk to his own business. It wasn’t until he was halfway back to his shop that he remembered Dove would have gone round with rent invoices this morning. Invoices that, with it being the beginning of a new year, included the standard increase. There was, much as he loathed to admit it, a slim possibility he may have brought about today’s unpleasantness himself.


End file.
